Microsoft’s Bing app for the iPad, released this month, is much more than a simple search program. The software giant makes full use of the iPad’s 10-inch display. In addition to including a Bing search bar at the top, the free app features six handy shortcuts at the bottom, including a trends icon that shows the day’s top searches with tiled images. Clicking on an image takes you to the top search results for that topic. The news shortcut displays top stories in various categories, such as “world” and “business,” similar to other news apps. Like the desktop site, the app is anchored by a vivid background image that includes bits of information about the photo’s subject. The search bar features a speech-to-text function that gets it right most of the time.
